Unemployment drops in April as holiday season underway

The Spanish job market has entered the high season, and the April figures are there to prove it.

Jobless claims fell and Social Security affiliations, a measure of job creation, grew last month.

Registered unemployment declined by 83,599 claims to end the month at slightly over four million. Meanwhile, Social Security added 158,038 contributors, according to Labor Ministry data.

This growth in affiliations was only stronger in 2015, when 175,000 jobs were added to the economy. Seasonally adjusted figures for April also show a positive performance in both job creation and destruction.

Despite the good news, the rate of job creation this year continues to lose steam compared with 2015. In March, the year-on-year growth rate was just under 3% for the first time in months. And in April it retreated to 2.68% compared with the same period last year.

Nearly all sectors of the economy added jobs last month, particularly hospitality, administrative activities and manufacturing.